Gill Furniss: Cuts that leave vulnerable out in the cold.

WE are in a cold homes crisis, with more than four million households in fuel poverty across the UK. Across the country in 2014-2015, there were 43,900 excess winter deaths.

According to the World Health Organisation, a minimum of 30 per cent of those deaths resulted from cold homes. In my constituency, there are 7,241 households struggling in fuel poverty.

Life in fuel poverty is miserable. No one should be choosing between heating their home and eating. Children should not be growing up in cold, damp rooms. Old people should not have to stay in bed or live in just one room because they cannot warm their house.

The current statutory target is to lift as many fuel-poor households up to band C energy efficiency standard “as is reasonably practicable” by 2030. This Government’s record on fuel poverty and their performance against that target are abysmal and going nowhere fast.

The charity National Energy Action estimates that we will miss the target by 80 years.